


Horrible Kids

by caimani



Series: Lemonade [5]
Category: As It Is (Band), Set It Off (Band), Waterparks (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Homecoming, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 18:02:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17411606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani
Summary: AKA: Monster High School Homecoming. It’s been a bumpy few weeks, but Cody and Awsten are getting along. More or less. Just in time for the game and the dance.





	Horrible Kids

**Author's Note:**

> I wanna take this moment to say thank you to all the amazing people who have encouraged this series (and this pairing). You know who you are. I hope you all have fun reading this. I sure had a lot of fun planning and writing it.

“So…” Ali says, catching Patty’s wandering attention. He looks over at Ali, sitting in the desk to his right. At the front of the classroom, the teacher— a vampire who’s been teaching for probably over a century— drones on about color symbolism.

“So?” Patty prompts. 

“That outfit finally arrived?” Ali says. “The homecoming one?”

A smile spreads across Patty’s face. “It got here last night,” he says. “It’s perfect. They’re absolutely not going to be expecting it.”

Ali snorts. “Those two? Probably can’t get past bickering with each other long enough to think about what you’ll be wearing on your date tonight.”

Patty rolls his eyes. “It’s just Homecoming, not that much of a date,” he says under his breath. “And they like each other.”

“Yeah, someday they’ll stop denying that.”

“Someday,” Patty says with a sigh. At least Cody and Awsten aren’t physically fighting each other anymore. They’ve moved on to verbal banter, constantly layered with innuendos and flirtations. It’d be cute if it didn’t give Patty such a headache sometimes. 

They’re both just incredibly stubborn. 

But Patty is more stubborn. He’s going to have them both. He’ll play the waiting game as long as he needs to. Both Awsten and Cody are worth it.

“What about you?” Patty says.

“Me?” Ali repeats. 

“Yeah,” Patty steals a glance to make sure the teacher hasn’t noticed them talking in the back. She hasn’t actually turned to face the class in at least ten minutes, entirely focused on writing the notes on the chalkboard. Patty lowers his voice anyway. “You ask someone yet?”

“N-no,” Ali says, a bit too quickly. It takes Patty a great deal of effort to keep from smirking at that.

“Hm. So you’re going with Ben?” Patty says.

Ali gets visibly flustered. “I— maybe. He said— And uh— and we’ll be with Foley!” he says, struggling to regain his composure. “I mean— we all live on campus anyway. We’re just going to be walking over there together.”

Patty leans his face in his palm, watching as Ali picks up his pen and looks up at the board to take notes. Patty thinks back to when Ben accidentally fell asleep on Ali a week ago while they were studying in Ali’s room. He had gone almost statue-still, eyes wide and mouth gaping at Ben, sleeping peacefully with his head propped against Ali’s leg.

One of these days…

~~~

Thank fuck. If Cody had to try to pay attention for the last class of the day, he thinks he might actually get a detention for something. How the hell is he supposed to concentrate when the _Homecoming game_ is tonight?! And also the dance.

With Patty.

Cody feels his insides go soft at the thought.

Oh. And also Awsten.

Cody’s light happy feeling evaporates and he groans. Beside him, Dan gives him a confused look. 

“What are you— do I even want to know?”

“Just remembered I have to spend the evening with Awsten,” Cody says. 

Dan breathes out a sigh, adjusting his backpack on his shoulders as they walk together down the halls of the school. The Homecoming pep rally is going to start soon, and most of the school is already there. 

“It won’t be that bad,” Dan says. “You’re going to have fun, just you see.”

“If you wanna ditch him at the dance, you can always hang out with us!” Maxx pipes up from behind Cody. “Me and Zach are gonna be hanging out in the back, far away from all you kissy couples. Zach’s gonna spike the punch with blood!”

“No I’m not!” Zach says. 

“You should,” Maxx says.

“Why would I waste perfectly good blood on all the people who go here?” Zach says.

“Use my blood!”

“Dude, no your blood probably tastes like death!”

“Even better!”

Cody finds himself smiling at their conversation. It’s nice to be reminded that they’re all supporting him in their own way. As frustrated and confused as he gets around Awsten, he’s at least got some steady constants in his life right now. Dan throws an arm around his and pulls him against his side as they join the crowd pushing into the gymnasium. 

Right away, he can see the representatives from the school clubs and organizations in the center of the gym, holding big banners. Some of them are about the homecoming theme: Midnight Fairy Tale. (Ironic, considering there’s a couple of fairy and half-fairy students at the school.) Most of the other banners are depicting the Monster High mascot defeating the New Eclipse Prep Academy mascot. 

Cody feels a jolt of excitement as he sees those banners and, as if on cue, the marching band starts playing. 

Dan elbows his side and points at the band. “Good thing you didn’t join, huh?”

“Yeah,” Cody says, unable to keep a hint of regret out of his tone. He had wanted to, but he missed the tryouts because of… yeah. His good mood vanishes again as he remembers _that._ Suddenly nervous, Cody pulls out his phone to check his texts with his mom. Still nothing new. 

He puts his phone back and tries to get back to his previous mood. Maxx and Zach both sprint around him, making a beeline for a half-empty row on the gym bleachers. Cody looks up into the bleachers— already packed with freshmen like himself— and he spots Patty up near the top with Ali. Patty grins and waves at him, and Cody grins back. He’s about to head up, but the dense crowd pushes him around and he ends up next to Maxx and Zach and Dan instead. 

Oh well, he’ll have the rest of the evening with Patty. He looks around at the crowd of students, and for a moment, it blows his mind. All of these guys are like him. Well, they’re not half-demons, but they’re all not human. Cody can feel so many incredible nonhuman energies in the gym: cryptic, magic, shifter, fae, elemental… 

“Hey Cody!”

Once again, Cody feels his mood drop, although this time for a very different reason. He turns just in time to see Awsten push past Maxx to stand by his side.

“What a coincidence, seeing you here!” Awsten says with a mischievous look on his face. “You come here often? Hey, you seeing anybody? Cause I hear there’s a dance or something tonight—”

“Maxx was in that spot,” Cody says.

“Yeah, now I’m in this spot,” Awsten says. “Hanging out with my boyfriend. Can’t I do that? Hey, you seen Patty around?”

Cody looks away from Awsten. Jawn, Geoff, and Otto have all filled in the empty spots in the row behind them. Cody almost wants to ask to switch places with one of them. But then the pep rally actually starts, and he decides he can put up with Awsten’s unwanted commentary for a while. 

“What’s the other school that’s playing tonight?” Awsten yells over the noise of the students and the band.

“Are you fucking serious?” Cody yells back. “Have you not been paying attention for the past three weeks?”

“Nope!”

Cody leans close to Awsten and points at the nearest banner, being carried by members of the tennis club. “New Eclipse Prep Academy!”

He moves a half step away from Awsten, closer to Dan. The marching band is doing a great job of pumping him up again. And down below, it looks like the cheer squad is getting in formation…

~~~

New Eclipse Prep Academy. Awsten wasn’t expecting— he sort of remembers Jawn saying something about shifters when he brought up Homecoming a while back, but he didn’t think— he thought it was some other monster school. Not… not _that_ one.

Luckily, Cody doesn’t notice his silence after dropping that bombshell on him. Awsten forces a smile back on his face, tries to ignore the other school’s name plastered literally everywhere he looks, and does his best to match the rest of the school’s spirit.

The signs were everywhere and he missed all of them. _Fuck!_

As the assembly quiets down a bit while the staff talk about rules and expectations for behavior, Awsten feels Jawn nudge him in the back. He glances back. Shit. Cody may not have noticed Awsten’s mood shift, but Jawn definitely has. He’s looking at Awsten with a hint of concern. Goddamn dragon intuition. 

Awsten looks away. Forget Jawn. He can deal with this. It’s not like he’s going to be actually face to face with any of the people from New Eclipse. And like hell is he going to let this ruin his Homecoming date with Patty. And Cody. Ugh. 

On impulse, Awsten leans into Cody’s side.

Cody tries to push him off. “What are you doing?”

Awsten turns his head to bite a mouthful of Cody’s shirt. “Whatever I want,” Awsten says through a mouthful of cloth. What _is_ he doing? Fuck if he knows. Goddamn werewolf brain. 

“If you rip my shirt, I’m going to burn yours with hellfire,” Cody says. 

Awsten responds by wrapping his arms around Cody’s waist. At that, Cody tries to extract himself from Awsten’s grip. Awsten refuses to budge. Cody’s annoyed, but not in a bad way yet. They’ve figured out something between the two of them in these past three weeks: something that works for both of them and makes Patty sigh at them less.

This is working. Just… don’t think about the other school. All Awsten has to do is think about how much he likes messing with his dumb and unfairly hot demon sorta-boyfriend. And how much he’s looking forward to dancing with Patty tonight.

Unfortunately, he still has to deal with the game…

~~~

Patty would be enjoying this evening no matter what, since he’s sitting between Cody and Awsten in the bleachers with a great view of the game below. But by far the best thing about this is…

“Did that guy just get a foul?”

“Oh my god, Awsten, please just stop talking.”

Patty laughs, pulling Awsten close so he can kiss his cheek. Awsten smiles giddily at the contact. Patty kisses the side of his head, and then turns to kiss Cody on his cheek too. 

“He’s ruining this,” Cody grumbles. Then he suddenly jumps up and cheers loudly, along with Foley and Dan and Zach, as something happens on the field that Patty misses.

“Home run!” Awsten yells beside them. 

“YEAH! Home run!” Maxx choruses.

“Wrong sport, you idiots!” Cody yells. 

When Cody sits down again, Patty puts an arm around his shoulder to hold him close. Cody’s full of energy watching the game, his eyes gleaming the color of demonic blue hellfire. It’s the happiest Patty’s seen him in a few days, which eases a knot of concern that he didn’t realize had been growing inside of him. He didn’t realize Cody had been so tense lately.

It’s probably just Homecoming though. Cody’s really into the game, on the edge of his seat and watching every move with excitement. Patty doesn’t really care about the team winning, but Cody’s enthusiasm is contagious. He finds himself clapping and cheering for Monster High’s team as they play. The opposing team is playing hard and rough, but Monster High manages to stay in the lead.

And soon it’s time for the halftime show. The band leaves the stands to go out onto the field along with the Homecoming court: a bunch of upperclassmen who Patty doesn’t know. 

As the band starts to get in position, Awsten stands up next to them.

“The game’s not over, Awsten,” Cody calls.

“Yeah, I know,” Awsten says. “I’m just getting something to drink. Be right back.”

He walks away and Patty follows him with his eyes until he disappears into the crowd. Then he sits a bit closer to Cody, who puts his arm around Patty’s waist. Cody is warm, and Patty leans into him, glad for the body heat. The evening is a bit chillier than he originally thought it would be. He might actually have to use the jacket that came with his dance outfit—

But then Cody takes off his jacket and puts it on Patty, and he gets a better idea. 

A short distance away, Dan and Foley are talking about the events of the first half of the game, while Maxx is on his phone. Patty watches the band play for a few minutes, enjoying the show. 

Then he glances to the vacant spot beside him. Patty frowns and looks into the crowd that Awsten had vanished into. How long has it been since Awsten walked off? He knows Awsten won’t drink anything but water at a place like this, and the snack shack had been giving away water for free when Patty passed it earlier. Patty narrows his eyes at the crowd at the foot of the bleachers. 

There are a lot more people in New Eclipse Prep colors than Monster High colors down there… As Patty looks, one of them shoves a Monster High student to the ground. 

Patty turns to Cody. “Awsten’s been gone a while,” he says.

“What?” Cody says. He looks away from the field, and then he too notices the crowd. His expression turns serious. “You think—”

Patty gets to his feet and starts off in the direction Awsten went. He maneuvers his way past other Monster High students and then glares his way past New Eclipse Prep students. They give him glares in return but move out of the way. Cody is right behind him as they make it through the crowd. 

The snack shack is crowded as well, with students from both Monster High and New Eclipse Prep. It looks like a good number of them are in line, but a concerning number are gathered off to the side, firing angry looks at each other.

“Is New Eclipse a rival school?” Patty says to Cody. The amount of tension present between the students of the two schools is startling to say the least. And he still doesn’t see Awsten anywhere. 

“Not exactly,” Cody says. “New Eclipse is a new school. It hasn’t been around long enough to have a rivalry.”

“So why does it feel like we’re a few steps away from a giant monster fight?” Patty says.

“Uh—”

Patty suddenly hears a sound— a familiar voice— and he whirls around to look for where it came from. There, near the snack shack, is the building with the restrooms. There’s a small group of guys in New Eclipse Prep colors gathered near one of the walls. And in the center of that group is—

“Awsten!” Cody yells, moving faster than Patty ever could. In a blur of hellfire blue, he shoves his way into the crowd of New Eclipse Prep students. One of them has Awsten shoved against the side of the brick building, his feet not touching the ground. Patty catches up with Cody just in time to see Cody grab the guy with a hand bathed in blue hellfire and throw him at least twenty feet away. Patty reaches down to help Awsten to his feet, from where he had fallen.

“The fuck are you doing?” Cody spits at the other New Eclipse Prep guys. 

Patty glares at them too. He realizes, after looking them all in the face, that they’re all werewolves. 

One of the guys scoffs. “Nothing. Just talking to a friend.”

“We were never fucking friends,” Awsten snaps, but he flinches when one of the other werewolves takes a step towards them. Cody stands in between the other werewolves and Awsten, his body lit up with tiny tongues of blue hellfire.

“Yeah, can see that now,” the werewolf says. “Got your demon boyfriend to fight your battles for you now, huh? And that’s the vampire I smelled on you, isn’t it?”

Patty clenches a fist and takes several strides towards the werewolf. The guy looks like he’s about to lash out at Patty, so Patty moves first. He grabs the werewolf by the neck and slams him into the ground. The other werewolves move to retaliate, but Cody’s hellfire suddenly burns bigger and brighter. 

“Get out of here,” Patty says in a low whisper. He squeezes the werewolf’s neck and is glad when he sees the asshole look scared. Then he lets go and stands back. 

The werewolves look pissed, but they must have at least half a brain between them, because they all slink away. Patty keeps an eye on them until they’re out of sight, and then he turns back to where Awsten is still leaning against the wall.

“You okay?” Patty says, moving close and reaching out to touch Awsten gently. Cody also comes, extinguishing his hellfire and pulling Awsten into a surprisingly affectionate hug.

Awsten sighs and relaxes into their touches. “Yeah. Sorry—”

“That’s not your fault,” Cody says, still holding onto Awsten. 

“Thanks,” Awsten says, pushing his face into Cody’s shoulder. “Those guys— sorry, they’re nobody.”

Patty thinks back to what that werewolf said. That doesn’t seem…

No, it doesn’t matter. Awsten is fine. Patty reaches out to hug him too, and then he and Cody lead him back into the bleachers.

~~~

So that happened.

Cody is torn between two choices: hunt down those werewolf assholes and set everything they love on fire, or stick to Awsten like glue for the rest of the night. The choice isn’t hard to make. 

Awsten actually clings onto Cody’s hand when they sit back down in the bleachers. He’s quiet for the rest of the halftime show, but then when the players come back out, he perks up. Cody’s almost distracted when Awsten actually cheers at the correct times, even though he keeps calling out the wrong sports terms. He stays by Cody’s side the whole time, with Patty on his other side, reaching out to pat him every few minutes.

Monster High wins. Cody feels a strong sense of pride as he takes in the celebrations below. It’s also satisfying seeing how pissed New Eclipse Prep is. The shifter students leave soon, escorted out by intimidating monster teachers and coaches. 

“We won!” Dan yells, pounding on Cody’s back. 

“Yeah!” Cody yells back. He hangs onto Awsten’s hand as they leave the bleachers, joining the cheering students below. The excitement and jubilation almost makes him want to stay, but then someone on the Homecoming court is talking into a megaphone.

“Monster High, you’ve got half an hour until the doors open for the dance! You’d better show up looking like you just stepped out of a Fairy Tale!”

Cody rolls his eyes at the cheesy delivery, but he and his boyfriends and friends all start walking for the exit. It’s fast progress; a lot of the other students seem more interested in getting themselves ready for the dance than in sticking around the field. Cody keeps holding on to Awsten until they’ve separated from the crowd. 

“Whose dorm are we meeting at?” Cody asks, looking from Patty to Awsten. 

“Mine,” Awsten says immediately. 

Patty tilts his head with a small smile. “Yours is the farthest away from the gymnasium,” he points out.

Awsten grins at them. “Yeah, that means we’ll have the most time alone together!”

“Aww,” Patty says, reaching for Awsten’s face to pull him into a sweet little kiss. Cody scoffs, but he’s smiling as he watches Patty and Awsten draw apart with matching smiles. Fuck, he likes them both so much.

He likes them _both._ That’s… Cody pauses, but when he lets go of Awsten’s hand, he misses the contact.

“Gotta go get ready!” Awsten says, walking away from Cody and Patty. A moment later, he drops to the ground and quickly shifts into his wolf form. He runs off and Cody concentrates on Awsten’s bright lunar aura until he arrives at his down building. He lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, and suddenly realizes Patty’s still there with him.

“He’s okay?” Patty says.

Cody nods. 

Patty sighs. “I don’t want to press him about… _that,_ but—”

Cody shrugs. “If it’s important, he’ll tell us.” As he says that, he’s struck by a bolt of guilt at the secret he’s hanging onto. That is a very big and important secret. But that… there’s nothing Patty or Awsten can do about that. It’s a family problem. And it’ll stay a family problem.

“I guess…” Patty says. He flashes a smile at Cody. “We’ve still got a whole evening to turn things around,” he adds. “See you in half an hour, Cody.”

Cody hurries to his room and changes as fast as he can. He ignores the tie that goes with the suit and puts a necklace on instead, then puts a new earring in. There’s not much about his look that matches the Homecoming theme, he realizes, but that doesn’t matter. He thinks he looks great. 

Cody goes to stand in front of the mirror. He messes with his hair for about five minutes before deciding it’ll look weird if it’s styled. He picks at the rest of his suit for another minute, then looks at the time.

Ten minutes until the doors open. They’ll probably be getting there late, knowing Awsten. Cody’s still got plenty of time before he predicts Awsten will be ready to leave. So he turns back to the mirror. Is this enough? He just looks like normal Cody in a suit. 

Yeah, it’ll be fine, probably. Dan and Maxx and Zach all said the suit looked good when he showed it to them a few days ago. He trusts their opinions. 

Cody shuts the door to his room. He leaves the dorm, enjoying the slight chill in the autumn air. Soon it’ll be Halloween. He can’t imagine how Monster High is going to celebrate that. 

As Cody approaches Awsten’s dorm, he suddenly stops. A little ways away, Patty is also walking towards Awsten’s dorm.

And he looks _amazing._

He’s in a sleeveless knee-length blood-red dress trimmed with black lines, and black flats. The material of the dress flows like liquid with every movement he makes. Patty turns and waves at him. Fuck, he’s got black lipstick and _eyeliner_ and fuck, Cody’s going to look so lame next to him—

“You look good!” Patty says, walking over to him. Cody’s absolutely mesmerized. 

“You—”

“Like it?” Patty says, smiling. He twirls around in the dress and it moves like it’s been touched with magic. Maybe it has. Cody can’t focus enough to use his powers to check. 

Patty reaches out and kisses Cody. Not on the lips or the cheek, but just below his jaw, where Patty bit him the other day. Patty’s lips linger for a few seconds, and the touch is electric to Cody. He hopes there’s a black kiss mark left by the lipstick. 

“Kinda cold out here, isn’t it?” Patty says as he steps back from Cody.

“Here,” Cody says, immediately taking off his suit jacket. He puts it on Patty’s shoulders. It doesn’t exactly match— Cody’s suit is black and blue— but seeing it on Patty makes him feel like… like he really wants other people to see them together. He briefly wonders if Awsten will be wearing complementary colors. Maybe they should have coordinated this.

Patty smiles and puts his arms through the sleeves. “Thanks,” he says. “Let’s go get Awsten.”

~~~

Seeing Patty in his dress (and the jacket that obviously belonged to Cody) made Awsten want to stick himself to the vampire’s side all night. But seeing Cody in his suit also made Awsten feel things. Fuck, he thinks he’s actually getting feelings. Like deeper feelings than the attraction that’s kept him with the vampire and half-demon.

He’s definitely feeling something after that whole mess earlier. 

After getting their picture, they all join the mass of monster students in formal wear on the dancefloor. Awsten spots Jawn and Geoff at the other side of the gymnasium, but he’s not interested in watching them when he’s got his boyfriends in arm’s reach. It’s actually really easy to ignore everyone else around them when he’s moving to the music. And watching Cody and Patty. 

He’s about to ask if they can take a break when a slower song starts. Awsten hesitates, and then takes Cody’s hands.

“Huh?” Cody says.

“Wanna dance to this?” Awsten says. Fuck, he’s actually being genuine and he really hopes Cody doesn’t retort with some teasing remark. To his relief, Cody nods and they move their hands into the right positions. 

Awsten takes the lead— he knows how to do this at least, thanks Mom— and he carefully moves with Cody in slow swaying motions. Cody seems a bit tense at first, but then he relaxes and leans a bit closer to Awsten.

“Um.” Awsten looks away from Cody for a second. “About earlier—”

“You don’t have to—”

“Thanks.”

Awsten glances at Cody, who looks surprised. “Uh…”

“I… I wasn’t looking for trouble or anything,” Awsten mumbles, keeping his voice low to keep people from listening in on them. Cody at least deserves to hear some of the truth. Not all of it, because the whole truth is kind of stupid. But enough of it. 

“They… I almost went to New Eclipse. Went on the tours and everything. That guy— he thought I was going. I said I would. When me and Jawn got back from the weekend stay, his parents had a brochure for this place.” Awsten shrugged. 

Cody looks a bit incredulous. “So he couldn’t deal with the fact that you changed your mind?”

Awsten keeps his mouth shut and just nods. It’s mostly the truth. 

Cody laughs and drops his head against Awsten’s shoulder. “I’m glad you came here. You’re an idiot—”

“Hey!”

“But I like you. If you ended up there, I’d never get the chance to— so.” Cody lifts his head up and looks into Awsten’s eyes. 

Awsten leans closer, slowly. Their dancing slows to a stop as their lips touch. Awsten pulls Cody closer to him, and one of Cody’s arms lowers to rest against the small of Awsten’s back. Awsten forgets where he is, lost in Cody’s embrace. His feel, his smell, the gentle movement of his lips against his. He clings to Cody, wanting it to last longer, but soon he needs to breathe so he reluctantly pulls away.

He and Cody stare at each other, the moment not breaking yet. 

Awsten smiles. “I was planning on stepping on your feet, when I thought about dancing with you earlier today.”

Cody laughs so hard his whole body shakes. “Thanks for not doing that,” he wheezes out.

“Oh I might still be planning on it,” Awsten says. “For the next dance.”

“No, the next dance is with me,” Patty interjects, stepping in between Cody and Awsten and kissing Awsten deeply. Awsten can barely react before Patty’s turning to kiss Cody. He’s not jealous watching them. He feels something happy inside him seeing them, knowing that he’s a part of the thing they have together. 

And, even though he feels an urge to tease Cody, he’ll hold it back. This time at least.

**Author's Note:**

> check out [Keith's awesome art](http://xjawnx.tumblr.com/post/181990523929) that inspired their looks for this fic!!!
> 
>  
> 
> [also holy shit](https://cyrusunderscore.tumblr.com/post/182752581388/an-interpretation-of-pattys-dress-in-horrible) Cyrus's art is incredible!!!!
> 
>  
> 
> flats are WAY more comfy than heels.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Lonely Smiles](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17426777) by [The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own/pseuds/The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own)




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